You have likely heard the saying “use it or lose it.” When it comes to your mind power, this phrase is definitely true. The longer you go without exercising your mind, the more likely you are to lose some of that power. However, some people just don’t want to sit around doing word puzzles and other common ways of exercising their minds. Instead, you can use these fun ways to increase the power of your mind and keep yourself thinking sharply.

Work the Senses

Most people take the use of their senses for granted. You most likely rely heavily on your senses of hearing and sight to get through life. This can leave the other areas of your mind neglected. To help strengthen those areas of your brain, try shutting out one or two of your other senses and complete a normal activity. For instance, you can blindfold yourself and have someone present you with objects for you to touch and smell to figure out what they are.

Create Inventions with Normal Objects

Creativity is food for the brain. You can improve your mind power and keep your mind sharp by thinking about two ordinary, unrelated items in your life and think of a crazy new invention you can make with them. It doesn’t matter if the invention doesn’t really make sense or isn’t something people would actually use. The goal is to think of new uses for things to make your mind think.

Blind Taste Testing

Similar to exercising your senses, you can conduct a blind taste test to make your mind really think. For instance, you can choose a selection of wines in a variety of qualities. Without revealing which one is which, you can use it as a party game to sharpen the minds of all your guests, challenging them to choose the highest quality wine from the group. You can also ask them to describe each wine, making their minds work harder.

Making sure you use your mind power will ensure your thinking skills remain sharper as you get older. However, this doesn’t mean you have to limit yourself to games you find boring. You can make use of fun games and activities to help you sharpen your skills and keep your mind working harder. It will also help keep all your senses sharper so your body doesn’t learn to rely too heavily on one or two senses.

Most people want to be happy with their lives. However, with all the stresses of daily life, especially the stress that comes from work and home life, can leave you wondering what you can possibly do to make your life happier. If you follow these simple self improvement tips, you will be able to improve your life and eliminate some of those stresses.

Create a Journal

Not everyone enjoys writing, but keeping a journal can really help you see the areas of your life that need improvement and which ones make you happy already. Write down all your thoughts and feelings so you can reflect on them and determine just what you can do to make the necessary improvements in your life.

Meditate

When some people think of meditation, they think of sitting with your legs crossed, practicing breathing techniques and chanting. However, this isn’t the only way to do it. The main purpose of meditation is to help you clear your mind. Learning to let go of your stresses and problems by clearing your mind can help you feel better about yourself and your life.

Use Affirmations

You’ve probably heard affirmations and never really thought much of them. However, if you want to make improvements to your life with these self improvement tips, you need to adopt one of these affirmations as your motto so you can enjoy greater happiness. Several options include “I am free to achieve whatever my mind can conceive” and “my problems are only problems if I take my eyes off my goals.”

Set Goals

Too many people make their way through life with no clear goals in mind. When you have nothing to work toward, it can be difficult to ensure you are happy. Therefore, it is important to sit down and think about what you hope to achieve in life. Only when you set and work toward these goals can you achieve the happiness you seek.

Improve Your Attitude

You can’t be happy when you go through life with a bad attitude. It is up to you to change that attitude. It is important to realize you can’t change how other people react to you, but you can change the way you react to them. You need to realize it is only you who is resposible for your happiness. This can help you achieve the happiness you desire.

Follow these self improvement tips and over time, you will see improvements in your level of happiness and satisfaction in your life.

When you were growing up, you were probably reprimanded on multiple occasions to share with siblings, friends, cousins and others while you played. It was so easy to want to keep your precious toys close to you and not let anyone else touch them. Sure, the other kids probably wouldn’t hurt your toys, but the toys were important to you. When you are grown, those early lessons of self improvement you learned stick with you, making it difficult for you to be selfish as an adult.

In general, it isn’t good to be selfish. It makes you feel good to share what you have with others who need it. For instance, if a coworker comes to you and asks for help with a project, you could say no because you have your own work. However, you drop what you are doing and help your coworker because he was nice enough to ask. Your own work might suffer a little, but you would feel far too guilty if you left your coworker hanging.

Despite the positives of not being selfish, you can also benefit from being selfish, at least some of the time. If you have ever talked to someone about self improvement, you may have heard that putting yourself first is important too. You don’t need to always put everyone else before your own needs and desires. In fact, if you do, you are far more likely to find that people are taking advantage of you. You deserve to be happy and have your needs met too.

When you put yourself first, you will feel more confident and can lead a happier life. You don’t need to turn others down all the time, but you deserve to be treated as a person as well. Therefore, when someone makes a request from you, take a little time to consider that request and then make a decision. Weigh out the pros and cons of helping that person with their request against denying it. For instance, if you go back to the coworker example, the project your coworker needs help with is due next week; however, the project you are working on is due tomorrow. It would be much better to say no and finish your project first.

Putting your own needs first can be hard for some people. You may be trained to always put others’ needs before your own as an act of kindness. Through self improvement techniques, you can learn when it is okay to say no and when it is okay to say yes. You should never sacrifice your own happiness for the sake of someone else, even if it means hurting someone else’s feelings.

In the end, your happiness is in your own hands. If you don’t focus on self improvement and learning the difference between being selfish in a bad way and being selfish in a good way, you may find yourself taken advantage of by everyone around you. From coworkers to family, you may find that it is so difficult to say no, you end up overextending yourself and ultimately sacrificing your own satisfaction.

Some people find themselves in an endless cycle of bad relationships. People who find themselves in abusive relationships often find themselves there because they grew up in a home that functioned the same way. This is why you will hear people tell someone in an abusive relationship to get out for the sake of the children. However, even if you find yourself in this cycle of bad relationships, you can still break the cycle as long as you put your mind power to its greatest potential.

One of the first things you need to do to tap into that mind power is to realize that you have fallen into a pattern. Just like an addiction, you need to realize you have a problem. If you can’t admit you are constantly going after the wrong type of people, you will continue to do so. You need to consciously make the decision that you are going to change the type of people you date so you can work toward finding the right one.

After you admit that you are looking for the wrong type of people in your life, you need to focus on using your mind power to learn to identify those who fit that category early. You certainly don’t want to start judging a book by its cover before you really get to know someone; however, you need to be able to identify the warning signs so you can cut off the relationship before you become too invested. The longer you stay in a bad relationship, the harder it becomes to leave.

Once you make the conscious decision to leave when you see the warning flags, you will feel more confident to act. No break up is ever easy, especially if you are a sensitive person. It can be very hard to let go. For our own sanity, you need to break the cycle and let go. In some cases, you may need assistance from a professional to break the cycle. Hypnosis has been proven effective at helping people break the cycle of bad relationships and move on to healthier ones.

However, you don’t need to rely on hypnosis if you don’t want to. You can use your own mind power to your advantage instead. One of the biggest reasons people find themselves in bad relationships is due to low self-esteem. You can use self improvement tips to help yourself realize your self-worth and improve your own self-image. When you feel good about yourself, you are more likely to put your needs at a higher priority in a relationship rather than seek validation from your partner.

If you have found yourself in one bad relationship after another, it may be time to evaluate why. Once you realize you have problems finding someone who can be a suitable mate, you can learn to use your mind power to your advantage so you can work on finding the right special someone. In some cases, you may benefit from hypnosis, but in many others, you can make things better yourself with some self improvement tips to feel more confident in yourself.